When the long dark autumn-evenings come

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence. 

- Thomas Hood

All the live murmur of a summer's day.

We're halfway through the CSA season, and a few of the ten week CSAs will be finishing up this week.

It has been rather dry (though we finally got some rain on Friday, and then again yesterday).
The gardens are doing very nicely, our beans are doing excellently this year! The weeding is time consuming,  but it appears to be paying off.
We has started harvesting the garlic!
We have the bush-hog again, and we have been clipping many pastures and other areas where the grass has grown out of control. I am quite a mole-arian and mouse-arian; I swerve not to run over them as they flee the grass I am clipping. I could never live with myself if I saw one of the rodents and then chopped it up.


Vegetable List:
Kale
Swiss Chard
Eggplant
Zucchini
Green peppers
Green beans
Yellow beans
Broccoli
Cherry tomatoes
Slicing tomatoes
Plum tomatoes
Basil
Parsley
Potatoes
Rosemary
Peppermint
Sage
Fresh garlic
Carrots
Onions
Lettuce heads
Lettuce mix








That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 

-John Keats

CSA Week 6

We've been having some pretty warm weather lately!
The gardens are in desperate need of weeding, even though we spend hours in them weeding every day! We are thinking of having a weeding party next week; a select group of people come over and weed and then we feed them a lot of good food. I'd cook, of course, because I'm rather slow at weeding and I only weed with one hand (I just can't do the double-fisted thing).
We are baling round bales today.

The cherries, currents, and a few cherry tomatoes are ripening. We still have a few strawberries; we had a pretty good year with those! It's scape season again! The sugar snap and snow peas are producing very well; I picked at least 25 pounds of snow peas last week. The green beans are coming on, which is very exciting!
The sour cherries will need to be picked soon; that means cherry pie!
 
Vegetable List (subject to change):
Kale
Swiss Chard
Snow Peas
Sugar Snap Peas
Broccoli
Lettuce heads
Lettuce mix
Zucchini
Currants
Green Beans
Basil
Cilantro
Parsley
Purslane
Green Onions
Radish
Spring Turnips
Peppermint
Oregano
Garlic Scapes

CSA Week 4

2014 is less than 6 months away...I'll just let that sink in.

That past week on the farm has been mostly rain and some clouds, the occasional really hot day, and whenever you are working in the gardens you are surrounded by a haze of insects.  

Essentially, garden work is impossible. It's too wet to hoe, it's a bit too wet to weed, and and taking the tractors into the garden is not even a plausible idea. 

Berry is doing very well, and she's very friendly now!

CSA List (subject to change);

Kale

Swiss Chard

Broccoli

Garlic Scapes

Sugar Snap Peas

Lettuce Mix

Purslane

Radish

Strawberries 

Spring Turnips

Chinese Cabbage

Green onions

Facts about Purslane:

~It has more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy green vegetable (three times the amount that kale has!)

~It is an excellent source or Vitamin A, which is an antioxidant and essential for vision.

~Purslane is a rich source of Vitamin C, which is an antioxidant. Vitamin C is also needed for the growth and repair of body tissue.

~It contains some B-complex vitamins, including riboflavin, niacin, and pyridoxine.

~Purslane contains two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish beta-cyanins and the yellow beta-xanthins. Both of these pigments are powerful antioxidants.   

Happy Summer!

It's summer already! It seems to have come too soon, and also to have taken too long to get here.
We got quite a bit of rain for one week, and the next week sun shone down hard and baked the upper crust of the gardens. Th tomatoes have all been planted, and most of them have been tied up. We have started picking strawberries! We should have zucchini soon; little fruits have started to develop on the plants.

Berry

On Thursday morning we moved the cows to the other side of the farm, then on Friday night we noticed a small calf that had been left behind. She had been born in the pasture, then her mother died; by the time she us --humans-- she was quite wild. This morning we finally managed to catch her! We waited for her to lay down, then I slowly crept up behind the little orphan, continuously humming either "Moon River" or "Dream a Little Dream Of Me"(I don't know why I did that, but she seemed to enjoy it and she didn't run away). Eventually I managed to grab her; thank gosh she was small and thin from lack of food. Then I did a little T-Touch in her on our ride in the back of a truck to the cow barn. She became a lot more friendly once we gave her a bottle of milk. She will be quite a pet in a few days :)
We have decided to call her Berry, in honor of her late Mother, Raspberry.

Vegetable List (subject to change):
Lettuce
Spring Turnips
Kale
Swiss Chard
Leeks
Onions
Broccoli
Strawberries

The friendly cow all red and white,
I love her with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple tart.
She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
the pleasant light of day;
And blown by all winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

CSA, week 1

Wow, it's CSA time already!

A majority of the tomatoes have been planted, and now we just have to tie them up.
The market started a couple of weeks ago, and so far is going well.

CSA Vegetable List (subject to change):
Spinach
Lettuce
Kale
Swiss Chard
Green Onions
Spring turnips
Radish
Spring Garlic
Sage
Peppermint
Cilantro
Bok Choy

O come sweet June, my lovely June
The month when first the roses bloom-
A wondrous, colorful display
By sunlight kissed throughout the day,
So chasing all my cares away.

-Valerie Dohren

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May...

Bela

Yes they do, Bill, they certainly do.
Since my last post three new calves have been born: Benjamin, Beth and Bela. The horses and cows are out on pasture.
I am gradually getting around to cleaning up some of the flower beds, and the tractor has been taken through a few patches in the garden.
We have planted peas, beans, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, onions, cilantro, fennel, spinach, napa cabbage, bok choy, cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, mesclun mix, strawberries, and parsley in the gardens. The tomatoes are almost ready for planting! Some peppers have been potted up in the greenhouse.
The CSA starts in a few weeks; so does the Market!

Cherry Blossoms

We are getting a few showers here and there, so the gardens aren't completely parched. I finally bundled up in a jacket, hat, and gloves and tackled some of the very long lawns!
We have said goodbye to Chief and Buddy, they have moved on to other homes. So now we only have four horses.
We had a little warm spell a couple of weeks ago, now it's just kind of cold, damp and windy.
It is wonderful to see the leaves on the trees, and the blossoms on the apple, pear, and cherry trees.

The new strawberry plants

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now.
Is hung with bloom along the bough.

-A.E. Housman

Beth

And the spring comes slowly up this way...

Baking Easter Bread today!

Atticus

Rachel

It is that time of year again... Starting seedlings, calves being born, preparation for the upcoming market/CSA season.

A little male calf by the name of Atticus was born on, very fitting, the first day of spring! And two days later, another little male calf was born; we named him Atlas. A big female was born on the 25th, we named her Bellatrix. Twins were born on the 27th; the little male survived and his name is Benedict.

Rachel is in the process of adopting a little male calf from a nearby farm that was born on March 17th, and therefore bestowed the unoriginal name of 'Patrick'. (He is actually a twin, and his brother was named 'Pat'.) We have since decided to call him another --equally Irish-- name; Finn.


I'm going out to clean the pasture spring ;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan't be gone long. --You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan't be gone long. --You come too.

-Robert L. Frost

Bellatrix

Benedict

Finn

Atlas